The 42-year-old Virginia transplant is the state's new geek-in-chief and sees his job as helping state government provide better service by using technology in smarter ways.

After a five-hour wait to get his driver's permit, Singer says that's one of many operations in Georgia that could benefit from his new Georgia Technology Authority, created this year to manage the state's computer networks and Internet presence.

''It could be something as simple as allowing you to download the forms that you have to turn in before you go to the (licensing) office, or just allowing you to fill them out electronically on the Web,'' he said.

Or maybe, he said, the state could allow people to make appointments on the Web for specific times to go to the licensing office. ''It may only improve it to be as good as going to a doctor's office, but you wait 20 minutes instead of waiting five hours,'' he said.

While the State Patrol says it's spent years looking for ways to use technology to streamline the licensing process, it hasn't gotten very far.

Singer, with a $5 million startup budget and the ear of a governor who delights in high-tech gizmos and uses a computer every day, may actually have a shot.

For starters, he's not a product of the stuffy bureaucratic culture of Georgia's or any other government. This is his first government job. He regularly shows up at the governor's office on a battery-powered scooter -- a motorized skateboard with a handle.

Driving the few blocks from his downtown office to the Capitol through Atlanta traffic would take 15 minutes, he says. Walking would take 20. The scooter gets him there in five.

''It's using technology to solve a business problem,'' he says somewhat wonkishly. But then the fun side of Singer pops out. ''You do all this heavy duty work and have all these intense meetings and then you go out there (on the scooter) and have little kids saying, 'Can I do it?' It kind of takes the pressure off a little.''

A native of St. Louis, Singer has been a research fellow in public policy at Harvard University and an executive at Texas Instruments. Before taking the Georgia job two months ago, he was president of Public Interest Breakthroughs, a nonprofit organization that teaches states to use technology to serve the disadvantaged.

As executive director of the Georgia Technology Authority and chief information officer for Georgia, Singer will be responsible for GeorgiaNet, the state's award-winning Internet site, and will oversee future software and hardware purchases by state agencies.

His budget oversight power won't be welcome news to state bureaucrats.

''Our new job is to say first of all to agencies that before you submit any requests, we want a strategic plan, and your plan should show how this project is going to help you achieve your agency goals and objectives and the governor's goals and objectives,'' he said.